Two stock/baseline 91 octane N20 dynographs from the new 2012 F30 BMW 328i - Yes, it is underrated

Two stock/baseline 91 octane N20 dynographs from the new 2012 F30 BMW 328i - Yes, it is underrated

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Two stock/baseline 91 octane N20 dynographs from the new 2012 F30 BMW 328i - Yes, it is underrated

We already knew the BMW N20 four cylinder was underrated from its 240 horsepower rating as we saw in a dynotest of the Z4 sDrive28i which put down 233 to the wheels. That dyno was done by Insideline who recently did a dyno of the new F30 328i and overlaid it with the Z4 dyno. As luck would have it, EAS also did a dynotest of the F30 328i so we have more than one graph to go on. For the record, Insideline was wrong about claiming they exclusively had the first 328i dyno.

First, let's take a look at the EAS graph. On their dynojet and with 91 octane pump gas they hit 226.51 wheel, strong:

Here is the graph from Insideline also with 91 octane but on a different dynojet, 240 whp:

So, why the disparity of about 14 whp? Well, the dynojet Insideline uses is routinely seen providing optmistic numbers. Yes, all dynojets are not created equal. We feel the numbers from EAS are for more realistic and will be much closer to what others will be hitting with their baseline graphs.

Notice when the Z4 dynograph and the 328i dynograph are overlaid they basically mirror each other with the same dips and same curve. No change in tune in stock form, all N20's should look basically the exact same with variances due to wheel weights and transmission choices:

The N20 is underrated quite a bit. This is likely done to keep 335 owners happy as the N20 does not give up all that much to the N55. This is going to be an exciting platform to tune and we should see the 300 whp barrier passed with this motor fairly quickly. 300 crank will be passed basically instantly with the very first set of tunes meaning an N20 with a tune will be a 335 killer in stock form.

I'm SUPER impressed with the power the N20's are putting down. I think i'm going to have to give up the wifes 05 330i ZHP sooner than I thought!

Originally Posted by jspirate

Actually, it would be more technically correct to say I went with the "medium," not the "big." Its a VW CC.

Nice CC!!! They look amazing with a drop and rims! What kind of gains did you get with the upgraded snail?? My old man was going to get one of those recently, but I got him hooked on the Audi B8 S4 after a test drive. Loved it so much he picked up a 2011 2 months ago! APR Stage 1 until end of April for now. My only beef is that the Audi DSG Transmission is nothing even close to BMW's DCT Transmission!

Sorry I don't have any technical data or anything to support my claim unfortunately, just speaking from my personal experience from driving both.

Althought I don't have as much seat time with BMW's DCT transmission as I do with my 6spd manual in my E46 M3 and my old man's B8 S4 DSG........ To me the BMW DCT Transmission just impressed the hell out of me when I drove my buddy's E93 M3. I was super impressed at the smooth quick shifts compared to Audi's DSG which wasn't as fast and also feels a little jerky at lower RPM while cruising in auto mode. (I.e Sometimes it kicks down when you don't want it to etc..) What ticked me off the most about the DSG transmission in my dad's 2011 S4 is it has a distinct early upshift from 2nd-3rd in Manual mode ONLY!! Leave the car in Auto and it will go straight to redline (7100RPM if I remember correctly) But for some reason the 2nd-3rd upshift in MANUAL mode the transmission shifts early at about 6000RPM. This is a well known issue with most B8 S4 DSG Owners from which Audi has yet to acknowledge and come up with a fix as of yet. Most of my local Audi dealers, Authorized performance and Indy shops locally know about the issue as well, but nobody has a fix for it as of yet! Still waiting for anyone to release some kind of transmission software as I'll be first in line to get it!

To be honest I didn't hate DSG/DCT Transmission as I thought I would (Diehard Manual gearbox lover) I could probably grow to love it!

Nice CC!!! They look amazing with a drop and rims! What kind of gains did you get with the upgraded snail?? My old man was going to get one of those recently, but I got him hooked on the Audi B8 S4 after a test drive. Loved it so much he picked up a 2011 2 months ago! APR Stage 1 until end of April for now. My only beef is that the Audi DSG Transmission is nothing even close to BMW's DCT Transmission!

Thanks for the CC feedback. And I agree, the DSG in the CC/GTI is terrible. I am a straight drive guy anyway though, so its all good.

This is the tuner's graph on what my gains should be. I did try to dyno it once, but the shop in town could not get a tach reading and it was all for nothing

The M5 is pushing even more and people are getting a little bit of it. This thing has room... just not tons.

Yeah, the M5 is pushing 22 psi peak; my question is are the tuners pushing those turbos out of their efficiency range to squeeze out some gains? I would love to see some data on the turbos used on both the F10 M and N20.

All I gotta say is, the N54 is still the most tuner-friendly turbo BMW to date. I don't think that will change in the near future, if ever.